Positive weekend in Silverstone

02.07.2013

Third round in England brought first GP3 pole to Kevin and elevated him to second in the standings.

Silverstone marked an important breakthrough
for Kevin – first time in GP3 he was able to take a pole-position. On the other
hand, in reversed-grid race 2 he was first time left out of points-scoring
positions. Still the balance from Silverstone is a positive one as Kevin is now
P2 in the standings, only 10 points behind the leader.

Still there was some unfinished business as Kevin
got both his starts wrong. What actually happened?

“Somehow I didn’t get the best starts both
time. Perhaps I dumped the clutch too abruptly and got too much wheelspin.”

Talking about the qualification it was obvious
that you had different timing compared to other frontrunners.

“Yes, it is true and down to tire strategy. We
had three sets of new tires available for the weekend and we ran all three of
them during the qualification while some other teams only used two. This is why
I was out a little bit later on my third set than some guys on their second.”

Maybe this affected you performance in race 1,
Jack Harvey was significantly faster in the beginning, especially in sector 2?

“Indeed he was, and maybe it was down to his
better tires. But I was fastest in sectors 1 and 3 and faster than anyone
behind us.”

Conor Daly made a dream start and got in front
of you from ninth on the grid. Did you know he jumped the lights?

“Team informed me after lap 1 so it was not a
big distraction. When he pitted to serve his drive-through penalty I could keep
my own pace without problems.”

Race 2 was a processional one without any
overtaking after opening lap. Was it down to superhard tires which were used
for the first time?

“May be, but I think it was mainly down to the
car itself. According to the regulations the rake of the rear wing can only be
seven degrees. Flat wing means there will be almost no slipstream behind the
car.”

But what about the tires themselves? Seems they
were not wearing out at all as fastest lap were posted on the final lap in race
2.

“Yes, tire degradation was minimal, maybe 0.5
to 1 second compared to the brand-new one. It felt like a proper racing not the
one where you must nurse you tires from the very beginning. In race 2 we started early in the morning, there was even a little mist in some places. Track
improved a lot during the race and that may also explain why the fastest lap came
so late.”

And you were obviously also trying to achieve
a fastest lap and earn at least those two points?

“Yes, I was running alternate laps – one slow
and one fast. I even got fastest lap at one stage but my problem was that I
didn’t see my pitboard. I tried to peek the others but got confused somehow.
Towards the end I decided to do two slow laps and then push hard on the final
lap but coming out of the last turn I saw the chequered flag and that was it.”

What are your hopes for the next round at
Nürburgring?

“We have to improve the starts. Pole position
gave me four valuable points at Silverstone and it would be nice to build on
that advantage. It was frustrating to lose some points this way in both races.”

And we are just a couple of days away from Nürburgring.
Schedule for this weekend is very much as usual (all times CET):

Practice

Friday, 17:50

Qualification

Saturday, 9:45

Race 1

Saturday, 17:20

Race 2

Sunday, 9:20

This time Eurosport will broadcast both races live (plus race 1 delayed at 9:00
on Sunday). And of course everybody is free to follow live timing for every
session at gp3series.com.